CSI RD&D

Previous Solicitations

This page lists previous CSI RD&D solicitations and associated documents.

Solicitation 5 (Small Grants)

Solicitation Summary

The California Solar Initiative (CSI) Research Development, Demonstration and Deployment (RD&D) Program is pleased to announce the release of the Small Grants Solicitation. The primary objectives for this solicitation include:

  • Improving the economics of solar technologies and increasing system performance.
  • Addressing key market barriers thereby increasing market penetration of solar installations in California to meet and exceed the CSI generation capacity goals.

Eligible Research Topics

The focus of this solicitation is to fund small tasks or projects that address the following topic areas:

  • Grid Integration, Storage and Metering - demonstrations or other small projects that provide solutions to integration of PV into the electricity grid.
  • Business Development and Deployment- demonstrations or other small projects that support solutions to building a self-sustaining market for solar energy in the state.
  • Energy Generation Technologies - demonstrations or other small projects that improve the economics of solar technologies and/or increases system performance.
  • Cross-Cutting - demonstrations or other small projects that integrate energy efficiency, demand response and energy storage with PV.

Funding Available

A maximum of $1 million in funding is available through this grant solicitation. The maximum amount of funding available for a single project is $100,000. The minimum project size for this solicitation is $50,000.

Key Dates (solicitation has closed)

  • Sept 3, 2013 Solicitation Released
  • Sept 11, 2013 Questions on Solicitation Due
  • Sept 17, 2013 Responses Posted
  • Oct 10, 2013 Grant Proposals Due
  • Nov - Dec 2013 (estimate) Grants Approved by CPUC
  • Jan 2014 (estimate) Grants Start Date

Eligibility

Any individual, business, public entity, non-profit organization, university, or national laboratory is eligible to apply to this solicitation. Itron and its subcontractors are not eligible to apply for funding from any solicitation under the CSI RD&D Program.
Solicitation Documents

  • Download the Small Grants Solicitation document here
  • Download the Templates for Exhibit A (Coverpage) and B (Budget Summary) in MS Word format here .

Questions

Questions on this Solicitaiton are now closed.

Q and A document (posted Sept 17, 2013).

Submission of Proposals

Proposals must be submitted electronically and must be received no later than 
4:00 P.M. (PDT) on October 10, 2013. (deadline has passed)

Key Principles of the Solar RD&D Program

SB 1, signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in August 2006, authorizes the CPUC to allocate $50 million of the CSI funds for research, demonstration, and deployment of solar technologies. The CPUC adopted the CSI Research, Development, Demonstration and Deployment Plan which lays out the seven key principles that the CSI RD&D Program must adhere to:

  1. Improve the economics of solar technologies by reducing technology costs and increasing system performance;
  2. Focus on issues that directly benefit California, and that may not be funded by others;
  3. Fill knowledge gaps to enable successful, wide-scale deployment of solar distributed generation technologies;
  4. Overcome significant barriers to technology adoption;
  5. Take advantage of California's wealth of data from past, current, and future installations to fulfill the above;
  6. Provide bridge funding to help promising solar technologies transition from a pre-commercial state to full commercial viability; and
  7. Support efforts to address the integration of distributed solar power into the grid in order to maximize its value to California ratepayers.

 

Additional Information

For more information on the CSI RD&D Program, please visit the CPUC's website at: www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Solar/rdd.htm

For more information on California's Solar Programs administered by the CPUC and the California Energy Commission, please visit the Go Solar Website at: www.gosolarcalifornia.com

Solicitation 4

Target Area: Grid Integration

The California Solar Initiative (CSI) is pleased to announce the release of the Fourth Grant Solicitation for the Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment (RD&D) Program.

  • Download the complete Fourth Solicitation document here
  • Download templates for Exhibit A (Coverpage) and B (Budget Summary) in MS Word format here.

Solicitation Summary

Up to $7 million in funding for grid integration research is available through this solicitation. The primary objectives for this solicitation include:

  • Overcoming existing barriers to integrating high penetration PV into the electricity grid; and,
  • Accelerating the integration and interconnection of high penetration PV into the grid.

Key Dates

Action
Date
Grant Solicitation Released June 13, 2013
Pre-bid Webinar June 27, 2013 (10:00 am PDT)
Deadline to Submit Questions June 28, 2013
DUE DATE for Grant Proposals August 7, 2013 by 4:00 pm PDT
Grants Approved by CPUC (estimate) November - December, 2013
Grant Start Date (estimate) December 2013

 

Eligibility

Any individual, business, public entity, non-profit organization, university, or national laboratory is eligible to apply to this solicitation. Itron and its subcontractors are not eligible to apply for funding from any solicitation under the CSI RD&D Program.

Questions

Submit questions related to the fourth solicitation here.

Deadline to submit questions is Jun 28, 2013.

Q&A document can be downloaded [ PDF ] posted July 9, 2013.

Pre-bid Webinar

Jun 27, 2013 at 10 am PDT.

Webinar presentation slides [ PDF ]

 

Webinar recording download [ Windows Media File]

 

Submission of Proposals

The proposal submission deadline has passed.

Deadline Aug 7, 2013 4 pm PDT

Key Principles of the Solar RD&D Program

SB 1, signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in August 2006 , authorizes the CPUC to allocate $50 million of the CSI funds for research, demonstration, and deployment of solar technologies. The CPUC adopted the CSI Research, Development, Demonstration and Deployment Plan which lays out the seven key principles that the CSI RD&D Program must adhere to:

  1. Improve the economics of solar technologies by reducing technology costs and increasing system performance;
  2. Focus on issues that directly benefit California, and that may not be funded by others;
  3. Fill knowledge gaps to enable successful, wide-scale deployment of solar distributed generation technologies;
  4. Overcome significant barriers to technology adoption;
  5. Take advantage of California's wealth of data from past, current, and future installations to fulfill the above;
  6. Provide bridge funding to help promising solar technologies transition from a pre-commercial state to full commercial viability; and
  7. Support efforts to address the integration of distributed solar power into the grid in order to maximize its value to California ratepayers.

Sample Grant Agreement

Download document here


For more information on the CSI RD&D Program, please visit the CPUC's website at: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Solar/rdd.htm

For more information on California's Solar Programs administered by the CPUC and the California Energy Commission, please visit the Go Solar Website at: www.gosolarcalifornia.com

Solicitation 3

Primary area: Grid Integration
Secondary areas: Production Technologies and Business Development and Deployment

The California Solar Initiative (CSI) is pleased to announce the release of its Third Grant Solicitation for the Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment (RD&D) Program.

  • Download the full Third Solicitation document here
  • Download templates for Exhibit A (coverpage) and B (Budget Summary) in MS Word format here .

Solicitation Summary

Up to $12 million in funding is available through this solicitation, with $9 million allocated to fund grid integration projects and up to $3 million available to fund smaller projects in the areas of production technologies or/or business development and deployment. Any individual, business, public entity, non-profit institution, university, or national laboratory is eligible to apply for funding. A minimum of 50% match funding is required for each project.

Award Information

Target Area
Grid Integration
Production Technologies and Business Models
Total

Estimated Funding for Area

$9 million

$3 million

$12 million

Estimated Per-Project Funding

$500,000 - $2 million

$200k - $500k

N/A

Key Dates

Action
Date
Grant Solicitation Released July 14, 2011
Pre-bid Webinar August 2, 2011 (10:00 am PDT)
Deadline to Submit Questions August 2, 2011
DUE DATE for Grant Proposals September 1, 2011 by 4:00 pm PDT
Grants Approved by CPUC (estimate) Early December, 2011
Grant Start Date (estimate) January - Febuary, 2011

Solicitation 2

Improved PV Production Technologies and Innovative Business Models

The California Solar Initiative (CSI) is pleased to announce the release of its second Grant Solicitation for the Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment (RD&D) Program.

Click here to download the second Grant Solicitation document.
(Revised 12/29/2009 to show deadline extension)

Solicitation Summary

This second solicitation focuses on improved PV production technologies and innovative business models.

Award Information

Total Funding Available: Up to $15 million
Maximum Award Amount: $3 million
Minimum Award Amount: $200,000
Match Funding Requirement: Minimum of 25% per project
Award Length: Up to two years

Solicitation 1

The California Solar Initiative is pleased to announce the release of its first Grant Funding Solicitation for the Research, Development, Demonstration and Deployment (RD&D) Program.

Solicitation Summary

Target Funding: This solicitation will fund up to $15 million and targets integration of photovoltaics (PV) into the utility grid and focuses on the following activities:

  1. Planning and modeling for high-penetration PV
  2. Testing and development of hardware and software for high-penetration PV
  3. Addressing the near term integration of energy efficiency, demand response and storage along with PV.

The entire Grant Proposal Solicitation Package is available here.

Funding Available

  • Total Funding Available Through This Solicitation:  Up to $15 million
  • Maximum Award Amount:  $3 million
  • Minimum Award Amount:  $200,000
  • Award Length:  Up to two years

Key Dates

The grant solicitation was released on July 8, 2009 and proposals (electronic and hard copy) are due by 4:00 PM (PDT) August 24, 2009. There will be a pre-bid conference on July 23, 2009 at 10 AM.  Awards are expected to be made by December 2009.

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